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The FBI has announced that the Charleston shooter has been captured and is in police custody. Dylann Roof was captured in Shelby, NC according to news sources. He is accused of killing 9 people, including the church’s Pastor Sen. Clementa Pinckney, during a prayer service at historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC Wednesday night. The shooting is being classified as a hate crime, which is a federal offense.

Just 72 hours after a man was killed on a city street by gun fire, Hazleton police arrested the man they say pulled the trigger.

Officers arrested Raphael Mora-Polanco, 26, Hazleton, while conducting surveillance Sunday in the area of Second and Alter streets, about two blocks away from the shooting that claimed the life of Jorge Marrero, 35, who’s last known address was on South Poplar Street.

Marrero was shot multiple times in the area of Alter and Fourth streets Thursday around 10:30 p.m., police said. He was found by police on West Fourth Street, near Emerald Court, the alley between Alter and Vine streets, with bullet wounds.

Hazleton police Chief Frank DeAndrea labeled the homicide an “execution” due to the circumstances involved.

A man shot and wounded during an argument amid a group of people at a vacant lot on Alter Street in Hazleton staggered up West Fourth Street in the rain before being shot in the head and killed late Thursday, city police Chief Frank DeAndrea said.

DeAndrea called the killing an execution.

He asks people who saw the incident to call police at 911 if they are in the Hazleton area or 570-459-4940.

Surveillance cameras show the argument occurring in a lot at 590 Alter St., and police circled a trail of bloodstains on the sidewalk and road along Fourth Street to where the victim was found just west of Emerald Court at 10:30 p.m.

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and Montgomery Township Police Chief Scott Bendig announce the joint investigation into a homicide, which occurred at 806 Karens Court in Montgomery Township.

On Thursday, April, 30, 2015 at 6:47 PM, the Montgomery Township Police Department responded to the 806 Karens Court for a reported disturbance with shots fired. Arriving officers located a gunshot victim, identified as Brienne Francisco, age 36, at the entrance of the residence. The victim was transported by MEDIVAC to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.

The Montgomery County SWAT Central Region Team was deployed due to the potential of a barricaded person inside the residence. Upon entry into the residence, officer’s located a deceased male, age 56, on the first floor. Preliminary investigation has revealed that the male appeared to have sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. A revolver was located next to his body. The identity of the male is being withheld pending family notification.

Investigation has revealed that both Brienne Francisco and the deceased male resided at 806 Karens Court. Autopsies are pending at the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office and Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office.

A Wilkes-Barre man was gunned down early Friday morning outside of his home on Willow Street.

Donald Bachman Jr., 49, was shot in front of 62 Willow St. around 3:40 a.m., according to police and the Luzerne County Coroner’s Office. Police said a preliminary investigation indicated a confrontation between Bachman and someone he did not know led to the shooting.

Some neighbors heard multiple gunshots, but didn’t see the confrontation or shooter. Several said Bachman worked nights at the Martz Group and described him as a hardworking mechanic.

TUESDAY UPDATE:
An autopsy Tuesday morning on the body of 21-year-old Samantha “Sami” Young determined she died of multiple stab wounds, according to the York County Coroner’s Office, which has ruled her death a homicide.

REPORTED MONDAY:

Samantha Young’s former boyfriend was covered in blood when police went to his Wrightsville home Sunday afternoon.

Marcus James Bordelon admitted to officers that he and Young had been in a domestic dispute inside his home Saturday evening, and admitted he “did use a knife to keep her from leaving the residence” about 4 a.m. Sunday, according to charging documents.

Bordelon claimed a large blood stain on his floor came from a cut on his own hand, police said.

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and Pottstown Borough Police Chief F. Richard Drumheller announce the arrest of Richard Collins and Mariah Walton for first degree murder, conspiracy, and related offenses. These arrests are the result of a joint investigation into a homicide, which occurred in the area of Washington and Beech Streets, Pottstown Borough.

On Friday, March 20, 2015 at 11:27 AM, the Pottstown Borough Police Department responded to Washington and Beech Streets for an unresponsive person. The victim, Artie Bradley, age 38, of Pottstown was pronounced dead at the scene. On Saturday, March 21, 2015, an autopsy was performed on the body of Artie Bradley at the Montgomery County Morgue. The autopsy revealed that Bradley died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds. The manner of death was ruled homicide.

The Pottstown Borough Police Department and the Montgomery County Detective Bureau conducted a lengthy investigation, incorporating witness accounts, video surveillance, and various other technological tools they were able to piece together the murder of Artie Bradley. The investigation uncovered an existing relationship between Bradley, Collins and Walton. In the months leading up to Bradley’s murder, Collins and Bradley had a falling out over money.

The soured relationship between Collins, Walton, and Bradley culminated on March 20, 2015 when Collins and Walton were called to assist in an altercation against Bradley’s paramour. This altercation provided Collins and Walton the opportunity to facilitate a confrontation between Collins and Bradley, resulting in Collins fatally shooting the victim, Bradley.

The defendants will be arraigned at Magisterial District Judge Scott Palladino’s Court, which is located at 1 Security Plaza, Suite 101 in Pottstown at 12:30 today.

The cases will be prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Samantha Cauffman.

WILKES-BARRE, PA — The city’s bloody 2013 has placed it on a list of the Top 30 “Murder Capitals in America.”

The 13 homicides that took place in Wilkes-Barre made for the deadliest year in city history. The city was ranked 18th on the list.

NeighborhoodScout, an information website which compiles data on neighborhoods and cities throughout the country, used FBI numbers on homicides to create a list of cities with the highest murder rates. The report lists Wilkes-Barre as having 12 murders and does not include a case involving an accidental shooting, which the FBI classified as involuntary manslaughter.

The report says that until recently, major cities ranked among the dominating murder capitals, but this list is “populated mostly by middle-sized cities as well as smaller cities in close proximity to larger ones.”

WILKES-BARRE, PA — Citing a “crisis of lawlessness,” former Police Chief Tony George on Monday pressed Mayor Thomas Leighton to restore law and order to the city of Wilkes-Barre in the wake of one of its most vicious weekends to date.

George, a city councilman and Democratic candidate for Wilkes-Barre mayor, urged Leighton in a press release to address the state of public safety by implementing citywide saturation patrols with an emphasis in “the most troubled neighborhoods,” including South Wilkes-Barre, North End and the Heights.

Over six days, two people have been killed and five others seriously injured in five separate shootings.

Show of force

During a press conference at police headquarters Monday afternoon, Leighton said patrols have been ongoing since 2013 and will continue as long as there is violent crime in Wilkes-Barre.

NORRISTOWN, PA – A 28-year-old man who was shot in Norristown Monday night was discovered mortally wounded in Plymouth Township, according to a press release issued by the Norristown Police Department and the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office.

Police were called to the 1200 block of Locust Street at 8:52 p.m. and discovered shell casings and other evidence at the scene. Norristown police said two people were shot. The release stated that while police were investigating, the victim was found in Plymouth Township.

The hearts of the families of two missing Pittsburgh men were broken Thursday when they learned that bodies recovered from the Ohio River in West Virginia last week were those of their loved ones.

The deaths of Andre Gray, who had been shot to death, and Paul Kochu, who might have drowned, “are not related” and are being investigated separately, city police Cmdr. RaShall Brackney said at a news conference Thursday night.

“I’m thankful to God for bringing my son home,” said Gray’s mother, Victoria Gray-Tillman, as she and other family members stood next to Brackney. “Now I can have closure. … I knew all along the Lord had my son.”

City Public Safety Department spokeswoman Sonya Toler said Hubert Wingate, 30, who has been in the Allegheny County Jail since Feb. 21 on unrelated fugitive from justice charges, has been arrested for the slaying of Gray.

A man killed his wife during an argument Christmas Eve, then took their two children to celebrate Christmas at his parents before calling police to confess, police said.

Dustin Lee Klopp, 36, punched Stephanie Kilhefner in the face, cut her throat and bashed her head with an ax at their Paradise Township home about 10 p.m. Wednesday, according to Pennsylvania State Police in Lancaster.

Klopp then tried to clean up the blood and moved Kilhefner’s body to a shed at the property, police said. He called state police about 5:20 p.m. Thursday to tell them he killed Kilhefner and wanted to turn himself in; he arrived at the barracks about 6:30 p.m., according to police.

About 5:30 p.m., a trooper arrived at their property at 623 Georgetown Road and found Kilhefner’s body in a car-carrier bag in the shed.

Authorities are still searching for the gunman who left six people dead in three Montgomery County shootings this morning, but a SWAT team has stormed a Pennsburg home in search of the suspect.

The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said police are looking for 35-year-old Bradley William Stone, of Pennsburg, in the killings. Three others were seriously wounded, officials said.

All of the victims have a “familial relationship” to Stone, prosecutors said. They were identified at a 6 p.m. press conference as Stone’s ex-wife, her sister and her sister’s husband, the sister’s teenage daughter, Stone’s former mother-in-law and a grandmother. A teenage son of the ex-wife’s sister was injured in the mayhem that occurred at two separate homes in two towns early this morning.

Montgomery County Court records show Stone had been entangled in divorce proceedings with his wife, Nicole A. Stone, since early 2009. The divorce was finalized in December 2012. Less than two weeks ago, he filed an emergency motion for custody.